


Picture You Here

by Ellessey



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Canon Compliant, Different colleges, First Kiss, Fluff, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, Warm and Fuzzy Feelings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-15
Updated: 2018-09-15
Packaged: 2019-07-12 17:17:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15999773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ellessey/pseuds/Ellessey
Summary: Now, Daichi is still in Miyagi, and all of those old routines, all the little ways Suga got to be close to him, are gone. There’s no more watching the sun burn pink patches onto gold cheeks, or wondering what would happen if he slipped his hand into Daichi's where it rested right next to him on their shared bus seat.Well, he could still wonder about that. Hedoesstill wonder about it, but it’s different now. There aren’t shared bus seats on long rides back from matches anymore. There are just text messages sent at the end of long days.I only got lost three times today, from Daichi, andMy chem professor definitely wears shoulder pads,from Suga.It’s kind of nice, though, the way they’re keeping in touch.--Suga and Daichi don't live in the same city anymore, but they're only growing closer.





	Picture You Here

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on Tumblr for DaiSuga Week 2018
> 
> Check out [littleskrib](http://littleskrib.tumblr.com/)'s GORGEOUS art [here](http://littleskrib.tumblr.com/post/177411995444/reunion-in-honor-of-ellessey-writes-5th-entry)...thank you so much for this <3

There’s so much to adjust to, now that Suga is living in Tokyo, in a shoebox sized dorm room that has a view only of another building full of shoebox sized dorm rooms. The claustrophobia is one, and the university workload is another, but more than anything, it isn’t the new things he’s struggling to get used to, it’s the absence of the old.

It’s the not waking up early to get the gym set up for morning practice. The not walking slowly to buy an after school snack for the first years, watching them dash ahead, fighting and laughing and tripping over themselves. And, more than anything, it’s the not walking even slower because Daichi was walking beside him, and Suga always wanted to make that last.

Now, Daichi is still in Miyagi, and all of those old routines, all the little ways Suga got to be close to him, are gone. No more late nights helping each other with homework, or lunches shared in the soft grass behind the school, with Daichi automatically dropping bits of his own meal into Suga’s bento. All the things he knew he liked best. There’s no more watching the sun burn pink patches onto gold cheeks, or wondering what would happen if he slipped his hand into Daichi's where it rested right next to him on their shared bus seat.

Well, he could still wonder about that. He _does_ still wonder about it, but it’s different now. There aren’t shared bus seats on long rides back from matches anymore. There are just text messages sent at the end of long days. _I only got lost three times today_ , from Daichi, and _My chem professor definitely wears shoulder pads,_ from Suga.

It’s kind of nice, though, the way they’re keeping in touch. The way he knows there will be some little note from Daichi before he falls asleep.

It’s even nicer when he starts to wake up to them, too, and when they start to appear all throughout the day. Texting had never been something they’d done much of, because they were always together. They could just turn to the side and meet each other’s eyes, wordlessly communicating that they’d probably failed that quiz, or that Hinata was two seconds away from getting decked by Kageyama.

He really loved that, the way their eyes would always go to each other first, but it seems that it’s possible for new habits to form, even with hundreds of kilometers between them. He can’t bump Daichi’s elbow when something catches his attention and Daichi is the first one he wants to tell, but he can pull up their conversation on his phone.

 **Suga:** you know the guy in front of me in poli-sci? the one with the bow-tie obsession?

 **Daichi:** ofc  
**Daichi:** what...has he added a top hat?

 **Suga:** no omg  
**Suga:** but  
**Suga:** he’s wearing suspenders today and he actually looks very....snappy

 **Daichi:** shut up. you’d punch me for saying that.  
**Daichi:** have you snapped them?

 **Suga:** i want to So Badly

 **Daichi:** wait till you’re leaving class and then do it and run

 **Suga:** such a bad influence, captain. is this what college has done to you?

 **Daichi:** you say as you text me in class

 **Suga:** i had to tell you about the suspenders daichi

 **Daichi:** i know you did :)

 **Suga:** :))

They’re just silly little exchanges, most of the time, but it’s like having a piece of home in his pocket. His favorite part of home.

His room is still much too small, and his homework is exhausting, and he wishes that sometimes he could sit beside Daichi and think about touching his hand, but what they have going now—the messages they don’t need to send but do anyway, just to connect; the fact that they’re seeking each other out even now that they’re not conveniently in the same place—is maybe worth all of that.

He wonders if Daichi thinks so, too. He wonders what Daichi would think if Suga tried calling him before bed tonight instead of texting him.

*

Daichi has been in college now for almost two months, and his number one favorite thing about it... actually has nothing to do with it. Not that he doesn’t like it or anything, it isn’t bad. He has a couple classes with Asahi, which is nice, and he likes his new volleyball team. He likes being in the dorms too, where he can have his own little space that his brother and sister can’t come crashing into whenever they want. He likes most of it, really, it’s just that the best part of it all is that ever since he came here and Suga moved to Tokyo (which was the worst), they’ve been texting each other a lot. A _lot._

They always used to talk a lot, of course, when they got to see each other every day at school, and that was also really great. But there’s something about the texting that almost feels like a little bit more. Maybe it’s because before they would walk home from school and say goodbye, and that would be it. Or even if they were together in the evening, studying or working on strategies for the team, once they’d said goodnight and parted ways, they wouldn’t talk again until the morning.

At first it was kind of like that with their texting too, when college had just started. Just a few messages exchanged sometime around dinner. But Daichi didn’t just miss Suga at dinner time—he missed him all the time—so he started texting more. 

Just a little, in case Suga wanted space. In case he didn’t want to spend all day talking to a guy from his high school. (He hopes that Suga thinks of him as more than that, even if it isn’t the kind of more he really wants, but he doesn’t want to assume. They never explicitly call themselves best friends, they just… are. He thinks. Suga is definitely his, anyway.)

Suga always texted him back though, with jokes and smiles and unnecessary amounts of punctuation. During breakfast, in the middle of class, and even—and this has been Daichi’s favorite part—in bed. There’s something really nice about texting Suga when Daichi's all quiet and comfortable with the lights out and the covers over him, and something even nicer about knowing Suga is curled up the same way, and that his mind is on Daichi.

They start texting later and later, staying up until almost one in the morning a few nights in a row. And then, as if Daichi wasn’t already thinking that nothing better has ever happened to him (and no he doesn’t give a fuck how embarrassing that is), _then…_ Suga calls him. At night. When he’s already in bed and Suga knows it.

“Hey,” Daichi says coolly, he hopes. He doesn’t want to convey his surprise and somehow jinx this unprecedented occurrence in any way.

“Hi.” Suga’s voice is low and soft, the way he’d sound at training camp when their sleeping bags were right next to each other. “Wow, I haven’t heard your voice in a while.”

“Do I sound older and wiser?”

“Definitely. I assume you’ve grown a beard as well?”

“I’ve actually been too lazy to shave for... several days, but I can’t grow a beard that fast,” he admits.

Suga snorts, then laughs softly. “Me neither.”

Daichi smiles and turns onto his side, cupping the phone against his ear. “You sound the same,” he says, and Suga does. The same cadence Daichi is so accustomed to, the same familiar warmth. Except that there’s something different about it too, because it’s far away while also being right in his ear, and it’s being shared with him while he lies in bed, wearing boxers and an old t-shirt. There’s something secret about it, something special. Something really new about getting to hear it as the night grows deeper and the stars get brighter.

It has absolutely replaced anything that came before it as the best thing Daichi has experienced at college, but _God…_ also the worst.

Daichi has never missed Suga more. He’s never ached quite this badly for all of this to mean as much to Suga as it does to him.

*

Suga is a little miffed, honestly, that he’s actually having a harder time with his feelings for Daichi now that they’re apart than he did when they were in the same place. They talk _so much_ now, and it’s wonderful, but he’s so painfully aware of the space between them. And not even just the actual physical space, but the hours when they’re too busy to text. The nights when Daichi has a game, or Suga has to work, and they don’t get to talk at all.

He especially hates it when Daichi is out with friends, which is _horrible_ , and he knows that and he would never say anything about it, but he’s just so terribly envious. He doesn’t know who any of them are, except for Asahi. Doesn’t know who’s making Daichi laugh, and who’s admiring that beautiful, warm smile of his. He doesn’t know what he’s going to do when Daichi inevitably texts him one day to say he’s going on a date. He can barely believe it hasn’t happened yet, and he finds himself bracing for it, the deeper they get into the school year.

“ _Suga.”_

“Hmm?” Suga says, snapping out of his obsessive tailspin to see Kuroo watching him from the other side of the library table they’re sharing. “What?”

“You’ve been staring across the room like you’re trying to melt something with your eyes for like five minutes straight. It’s creeping me out.”

Suga blinks a few times, registering the dryness of his eyes from his unintentional staring, then groans and drops his head to the textbook in front of him. “I _am_ creepy,” he says.

“What’s wrong with you?” Kuroo asks, reaching over to lift Suga’s hair out of his eyes with the end of his pen. “Why so creepy?”

“I have a crush,” Suga says, even though it’s significantly more than a crush, and he’s pretty sure he’s been in love with Daichi for well over a year now.

“Understandable,” Kuroo says. “I _am_ a treasure.”

Suga snorts and sits up again, resisting the urge to flip his phone over so he can see if Daichi has texted. “It’s not on you. You can stay buried.”

Kuroo grins lazily at him, then nods towards the phone between them. “Who then?” he asks. “That burly captain of yours? The one you’re always texting?”

“He’s not... burly,” Suga says. “And you know his name.”

“The boy has some _thighs,_ Sugawara. Is that what you were thinking about? Wondering if he could smash—”

“Stop, oh my God, stop,” Suga says, but then his morbid curiosity betrays him. “Smash _what?”_

Kuroo’s smile just gets extra wide and extra Kuroo, and he shrugs. “Anything you put between them.”

Suga bites his lip. He cannot have this conversation. He is well aware of Daichi’s thighs, and every other part of him, but he is _not_ going to think about him like that. Especially not in the middle of the library with his lab partner watching him with ever-mounting delight.

“We are tabling this topic of discussion,” he says.

“Until you’re tapping that?”

Suga sighs and gathers his things together. Maybe by the time he gets back to his room, Daichi will be back in his own, too.

“Sweet dreams!” Kuroo calls after him, and Suga does a quick check to be sure the librarian’s focus is elsewhere before flipping Kuroo off as he walks out.

He checks his phone on the way to his dorm, and Daichi _has_ texted him. A lot.

 **Daichi:** i’m back, finally  
**Daichi:** everyone just kept talking and talking and it was nice but like  
**Daichi:** i was ready to gooo. i’ve barely talked to you the past couple days  
**Daichi:** ah...i guess you’re still out though  
**Daichi:** text me when you’re back and i’ll try to still be awake  
**Daichi:** but don’t like...feel like you have to  
**Daichi:** you’re with kuroo tonight right?  
**Daichi:** i hope you’re having fun  
**Daichi:** i might just sleep  
**Daichi:** sorry that was too many messages to say essentially nothing

 **Suga:** hello daichi :D

 **Daichi:** hi...just ignore all of that please  
**Daichi:** did you have a good time

 **Suga:** with kuroo?

 **Daichi:** with kuroo, yes  
**Daichi:** my nemesis, but i’ll go ahead and let that go

 **Suga:** XD  
**Suga:** what daichi...are you jealous?

 **Daichi:** of course not. why would i be jealous that the ARCH-NEMESIS of our former beloved team gets to spend time with my best friend while i do not

 **Suga:** agkjdfgkldjfkljfh ARCH NEMESIS NOW

 **Daichi:** shut up

 **Suga:** am i your best friend daichiiii??

 **Daichi:** you’re failing to shut up

 **Suga:** :DDDD

 **Daichi:** that’s not much better

 **Suga:** you don’t get to be jealous of kuroo. unless i’m allowed to be jealous of all the faceless people who get to hang out with MY best friend

 **Daichi:** ...are you?

 **Suga:** am i what

 **Daichi:** jealous, suga

 **Suga:** oh  
**Suga:** yes...very much actually

 **Daichi:** oh

 **Suga:** >_>

 **Daichi:** * >_>*

 **Suga:** omg

 **Daichi:** should we awkwardly say goodnight now?

 **Suga:** yes probably?

 **Daichi:** okay  
**Daichi:** or  
**Daichi:** i could just call you

Suga has to put his phone down before he can reply to this. His palms are sweating, his heart pounding. He doesn't know what Daichi is thinking, or if all this talk about jealousy could actually mean what Suga thinks it might. The same thing it means to him.

But… Daichi called him his best friend. And he said he was jealous of Kuroo. And he blushed. He _blushed._

 **Daichi:** suga?

 **Suga:** sorry!!  
**Suga:** yes!  
**Suga:** let's be awkward on the phone instead!!

 **Daichi:** oh my god…suga I can't tell if you're just joking or actually want me to call  >_<

 **Suga:** alalksjdhwjjrfk  
**Suga:** I’M CALLING YOU

He has no idea what he’s going to say, but it seems like maybe, possibly—please oh please God—he might not be the only one with a crush.

*

Daichi almost throws his phone across the room when it rings. Which is ridiculous because he _knew_ Suga was about to call, he _wanted_ him to call, but fuck he doesn’t know if he’s ready for this. He doesn’t know if this is anything at all, or if Suga just wants to tease him over the phone for being such a dork.

“Hey!” he says, once he finally accepts the call. His voice is stupid and loud. A huge step down from older and wiser. “Sorry,” he adds, adjusting his volume. “I’m just... hey.”

“Hi,” Suga says. “Are you okay?”

His voice has a smile in it. Daichi didn’t quite realize the way Suga does that until he didn’t get to see his face anymore, and found that all of those things he used to be able to see—the knowingness in Suga's eyes, the slow curve of lips—were right there, if he was really listening.

Daichi doesn’t know what to say, because he is simultaneously more than okay and also really not okay at all. He’s freaking out a little. He’s really legitimately jealous of Kuroo and everyone else who gets to spend time with Suga. He’s terrified of Suga falling for someone else without Daichi ever even telling him how he feels.

“I’m…”

“You know, you were the one who suggested calling.”

Daichi is aware of that. There was a brief moment when Suga made that cute little face after saying he was not just jealous, but _very much_ jealous, where Daichi had felt strangely bold. He’s significantly more uncertain now, but God, if the last months have taught him anything, it’s that the best part of his day is always, always getting back to his room and talking to Suga. And it’s probably about time he actually told him that.

“Right,” he says. “Um... so I have a question.”

“That sounds ominous.”

“It is.”

“God.”

Daichi steels himself, then plunges ahead. “Are you... are you dating anyone?”

“Of course not, don’t you think you’d know if I was?”

“I don’t know, you’re not... you’re not obligated to tell me what you’re doing when you go out.”

“Is this about Kuroo?”

“ _No,_ yes. Not Kuroo specifically, but just… so you’re not? Seeing anyone? Or him?”

“I’m not,” Suga says, and his voice carries all of those things that Daichi loves in Suga’s face. It’s open and warm, and holding just a bit of a secret, but never the bad kind. “Why, Daichi? Do you think Kuroo and I would make a cute couple?”

“No, Jesus. Let’s stop talking about Kuroo. He’s too tall.”

Suga snickers. “So, you’re worried about me dating someone too tall?”

“I’m worried about you dating someone who’s not….me.”

The line goes very quiet and Daichi gets this all-over feeling of terror. Or maybe it’s just a full body blush. Or maybe he is _actually on fire_ because that’s definitely what it feels like, and _still_ Suga hasn’t said anything. Daichi doesn’t know if he should apologize or just hang up.

“Suga?”

“Hi,” Suga says, which is... not actually a response to what Daichi just said. And Suga’s voice is very small, and kind of... different. Daichi’s never heard it quite like this before.

“Hi?”

“Sorry, sorry, I’m just... I’m crying? And I’m really embarrassed and—”

“Oh my God, Suga no, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have—”

“No! Don’t apologize! I’m just _happy._ I’m really, really happy.”

“You’re…" Daichi plays the words back in his head, again and again. It takes him a full ten seconds to really process them, and then he rolls over and smashes his face into his pillow while his heart triples in size and his chest strains to contain it. “Really?” he asks. His voice is muffled and stupid now, but he doesn’t care.

“Daichi, _yes._ Do you know what Kuroo and I were talking about tonight?”

Daichi laughs at Kuroo’s name this time, because everything in the world is making him unbearably happy. “No. What?”

“My big fat distracting crush on you. And... your thighs.”

“What?”

“Nothing, it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to be jealous of Kuroo.”

Daichi is not. All he’s doing is soaking in Suga’s voice, and this moment, and the incredible feeling of finally, _finally_ being honest. And all of it being okay.

“Suga, I really want to see you,” he says. “You don’t come home till the end of the semester?”

He already knows this is the case. Suga’s parents don’t have a lot of money, and everything Suga is making at his own job is going towards tuition. There will just be one visit home, and it’s too far away.

“Yeah, God I wish—”

“I can go to Tokyo. I mean I will, if you don’t mind. I know your room is small, and—” Daichi stops, because Suga is laughing.

“Of _course_ I don’t mind. Yes, please come visit me. Soon. _Now.”_

“This weekend,” Daichi says around a laugh of his own. “Or, shit, no… I have a match this weekend. Next weekend? I can come next weekend.”

“No, Daichi. It’s this weekend or nothing.”

“Damn.”

There’s a little exhalation across the line, like Suga is smiling, laughing softly. Daichi has really loved becoming so accustomed to the sounds of his happiness.

“Next weekend is perfect. I can’t wait to see you.”

Daichi can’t either. It’s been over four months since he last saw Suga, and the thought of seeing him again now? When he knows that Suga has a big fat crush on him? And maybe also on his thighs which is weird but also kind of great? It’s possible that Daichi has never been more excited about anything, ever, period.

“Ten days,” he says, and he knows Suga is smiling still.

*

It feels like all of Suga’s internal organs have been replaced with firecrackers, the day of Daichi’s visit. He would have been over the moon about seeing him anyway, even if that conversation the week before had never taken place. But it _did_ take place _,_ and now everything is different. It’s not just seeing Daichi again, it’s seeing him in a completely new way, where he’s allowed to maybe stare at him without trying to hide it, and is probably definitely going to get to hold his hand.

There are quite a few other things he’s hoping he'll get to do, too, and thinking about all of it is making his head spin. It’s making him immensely, ridiculously grateful that his room is the size of a closet, and he gets to share that space with Daichi for the next two nights.

It’s making him nervous beyond belief.

“Suga?”

“ _What?”_ Suga snaps when Kuroo startles him, all his impatience and excitement bursting out with unintentional sharpness.

“God,” Kuroo says, holding his hands up and taking a step back. “You’re _frighteningly_ unchill.”

That’s exactly what he is, and Kuroo pointing it out is not helping. Suga just needs to get through this lab, and then his Friday classes will be finished, and he can go and find Daichi. He’s already on campus somewhere, waiting for Suga to get out, and that is not helping either because Suga just wants to be right there with him. Immediately. His tenuous grip on any sense of chill was lost the moment Daichi texted to say he’d arrived.

“There’s only like, five minutes left,” Kuroo says. “Just slip out, no one will notice.”

“But we still have to—”

“I’ll clean up,” Kuroo says. “Just go. I’ll cover for you.”

Suga’s eyes dart around, assessing the position of their professor, and the number of students he would have to walk past, which is thankfully very few. The odds seem to be in his favor, and Daichi is out there, with his smile that Suga has missed so much his chest almost hurts at the thought of having it directed at him again.

“I owe you,” he says, even though he should know better. Kuroo confirms this with his wide smile and narrowed eyes.

“I want _details,_ Sugawara, about—”

“Nope! Bye!” Suga says, slipping his bag over his shoulder before darting past Kuroo and out the door. He has his phone out before he’s even left the building. 

 **Suga:** where are you??

 **Daichi:** uh...there’s a lot of trees  
**Daichi:** and bike racks

 **Suga:** that could be like 100 different places daichi

 **Daichi:** oh, the library is behind me

 **Suga:** :DDDD i’m almost there!!!

 **Daichi:** okay!

Suga has to force himself not to run, because it’s hot and humid today and he doesn’t want to arrive in front of Daichi sweat soaked and panting. He’s sweating when he gets there anyway, though, when he spots Daichi from behind. All broad shoulders hugged by tight, white cotton. Suga swears he looks bigger now than he was before college started.

“Daichi,” he says, his heart in his throat as he watches the other boy turn to face him. God, how could just a few short months be enough for Suga to have forgotten just how beautiful he is. How warm his eyes are, how goddamn strong his jaw is. Definitely also stronger than it was before.

“Hey,” Daichi says, with one hand tight around the handle of his gym bag, and the other empty and hesitant. Almost reaching out, and then staying at his side instead. Suga wants Daichi to touch him, but he’s glad to see that he’s not alone in his nervousness. In how overwhelming it feels just to be _seeing_ Daichi again.

“You’re here,” Suga says, brilliantly. Daichi smiles and takes a step closer to him, and Suga frowns. “You jerk. You’ve gotten bigger.”

Now that they’re right in front of each other he can really see the breadth of Daichi’s chest, and the swell of the muscles in his arms. Suga has barely worked out at all since he moved here, but clearly Daichi has made time for it.

“What?” Daichi says, his hand moving to rest over his stomach.

“Not there,” Suga tells him with an incredulous shake of his head. “You’re... I meant…” His eyes drift over Daichi’s shoulders and chest, and he’s blushing by the time his gaze has fallen to somewhere around Daichi’s shoes, which are the same scuffed ones he remembers.

“Oh, uh... sorry?”

“Making me look bad,” Suga grumbles, looking up to meet Daichi’s eyes again, and delighting in the color that has risen in his cheeks too.

“You’re... you really don’t—” Daichi’s eyes have grown wide, and he stops suddenly. Takes a deep breath. He’s so cute, and this is so awkward, and Suga is so incredibly happy. “You look... really good, Suga,” Daichi says. “Really.”

“You too,” Suga tells him, and he takes another step closer. “Should we, uh—”

“Go?”

“What?” Suga says. He was going to ask if they could hug.

“Like, to your room? Or anywhere, I mean. Just not… standing here forever.”

“Oh, right, yes.”

“What were you going to say?” Daichi asks.

“Nothing! The dorms are this way,” Suga says, taking a step back and turning away. He stops short when Daichi catches his wrist, and before he can say a thing he’s being tugged suddenly into strong arms, wrapped up tightly and held against Daichi’s chest. Suga hugs him back, so hard it makes Daichi gasp a little, and then laugh when Suga only squeezes him harder.

They’ve hugged before, after wins and losses. When they said goodbye before college began. But never like this, with Daichi’s hand cupping the back of Suga’s head, and Suga’s face pressed into the warmth of his neck. They’ve hugged, but they’ve never _held_ each other, until now.

“I missed you,” Daichi says, muffled and soft in Suga’s hair.

“Well you’re staying here forever now,” Suga tells him, still not letting go.

Daichi’s smile brushes Suga’s ear. “Okay,” he says, even though they both know he can’t.

That doesn’t matter. What matters is that he wants to, and Suga wants him to, and the fact that Daichi will have to leave just means that he’ll return and this will happen again, just the same way. With their hearts pressed together, and all the wonder of getting to feel Daichi’s racing. Like Suga isn’t the only one exploding inside.

*

They don’t go straight to Suga’s dorm in the end, because they’re both hungry, and Suga admits that he has nothing but packaged snack cakes stashed under his bed. After they’ve eaten they throw their bags in Suga’s room (which really is almost astoundingly tiny, even smaller than Daichi’s) and head right back out. Daichi spotted a volleyball crammed between the bed and the desk, and it’s been too long since they played together.

“I’m out of practice,” Suga warns him, when they’ve found an empty, grassy expanse and have sat down to stretch. “All I’ve had time for is some yoga in the mornings.”

“Yoga?” Daichi says. “When did you…” He was about to ask when that started, but Suga is stretching now, upper body raised and chest pressed forward, with his legs straight out behind him and his back arched sharply. His arms are toned and strong, muscles flexed as they support him, and he does not look out of practice at all. He looks so good Daichi can’t quite get his mouth to close.

“What?” Suga asks, shifting backwards into a new position. This time with his butt in the air, the rest of his body forming a triangle with the ground.

Daichi almost chokes. It’s not like he hasn’t noticed Suga’s body before, but he's always tried very hard not to stare too long. And now that he’s _not_ trying, now that Suga is doing these things that Daichi’s never seen him do, with muscles that are noticeably more defined and limber, it’s just a lot. A lot of really good things.

“Nothing,” he says. “I just didn’t know you—” Daichi stops again, this time much more abruptly, because Suga’s shirt has slipped up, with the way he’s leaning forward, and there’s something there—something that is also very new—on the side of Suga’s ribcage. “You have a _tattoo?”_

Suga’s face is already pink, from his head being upside down, but it seems to become pinker as he quickly drops to his knees, his shirt falling back down over his stomach. “Um…” he says. “I do.”

That’s all he offers, and Daichi stares at him, willing him to share more. When Suga just looks back at him, biting his lip, Daichi tries again.

“Can... can I see it?”

“It’s embarrassing.”

Daichi can’t help smiling at that, his curiosity growing. “What is it? It can’t be that bad.”

“It’s not bad, it’s just…” Suga sighs, lifting the hem of his shirt on his right side. “I got it right after I came here. It’s…”

It’s two birds, black, with their wings outstretched. Taking flight along the path of Suga’s ribs.

“Crows?” Daichi asks, and Suga nods, his eyes downcast. They flick open suddenly when Daichi reaches out his hand, letting the tip of his finger gently trace the shape of one bird, and then the other. “Why?”

“I missed you,” Suga says, and Daichi hoped that was what it meant, but now he knows. They aren’t just birds, they’re teammates. Friends. Whatever this wonderful thing is that he and Suga are becoming.

He brushes his fingers over the tattoo once more as the birds rise with Suga’s breath, then takes Suga’s hand so the shirt falls and they can press their palms together. Suga’s skin is so warm, his eyes so bright as he slips his fingers between Daichi’s and squeezes back.

“Not embarrassing,” Daichi says.

“It would be if you didn’t miss me too.”

Daichi smiles, still reeling a little over the newfound knowledge that all these nights they’ve been talking, Suga already had this ink, this symbol of what they’ve been and what they could be.

“I do, though,” he says. “Maybe I should get one, too.”

“You hate needles.”

Daichi does, but he also loves Suga. He loves the thought of having him right under his skin. “Hold my hand then?” he says.

“If you cry, I can’t promise not to tease you,” Suga tells him. His eyes are already doing just that, but his smile is relieved, and excited, and splitting Daichi in two.

He misses Suga so much when they’re apart, but he also thinks leaving each other was maybe the best thing that could have happened to them. Now Suga has this tattoo, and Daichi has Suga’s hand in his, and they don’t have to be living in the same city to be charting the same course.  

*

By the time they make it back to Suga’s room the sky has deepened into a rich indigo, Suga’s forearms are aching from the slap of the ball, his fingertips tingling comfortably, and he has held Daichi’s hand three entire times. It’s even better than he thought it would be, and he hates to let go once they step inside.

“It’s _so small,”_ Daichi says, looking around after they’ve shut the door behind themselves. 

“It basically doesn’t exist,” Suga says, stepping away from Daichi to shove the volleyball back in its little corner. “I wasn’t sure where you’d want to sleep, but…”

“Oh, uh... I’m fine anywhere,” Daichi says, as if there are more than two options. The tiny bed, or the tiny amount of floor space. If Daichi stretches out on the rug, there will literally be nowhere to walk.

“We can just share the bed,” Suga says quickly, because this is what he wants, and if he rushes the words he won’t have time to get flustered about them. “If you don’t mind being squished.”

Daichi shakes his head. “Do you?”

“What do you think?” Suga asks, sitting down on the bed and scooting to the far side of it, against the wall. There’s nothing he’d like more than to be as close to Daichi as possible.

“I think,” Daichi says, sitting next to him and then stretching out on his side, “that I’ve spent... a lot of time trying to picture you here, when we’ve been talking at night. And now I can.”

“Is it weird that I’ve spent a lot of time trying to picture you here, too?”

“Not in my own bed?”

“That too,” Suga says, matching Daichi’s position so that they’re mirroring each other, only inches between them. “But I didn’t want you far away from me, I wanted you right here.”

“I’m here,” Daichi says softly, his hand coming to rest on Suga’s ribs, wide and warm, right over his tattooed crows.

Suga stops breathing momentarily, then he reaches for Daichi, too. Trails his fingertips lightly across his cheek, along the line of his jaw. He stops at his chin, skimming his thumb over the pleasant scrape of light stubble, and then over the soft give of his full lower lip. Daichi’s breath catches too, long enough that it falls out heavy and hot on Suga’s skin when he lets it go.

“Can I?” Suga asks, and Daichi nods. His lip slips away from Suga’s thumb with the movement, and Suga leans in to press his mouth against it instead.

It’s almost incomprehensible, how amazing something so simple can feel. Just lips touching and warm breath on warmer skin. But Suga has never kissed anyone before, and until today he’s never had Daichi’s hand in his hair, pulling him closer now as they readjust. Heads tilting and lips parting. Suga smiling suddenly into the kiss because he can’t help it, he’s so glad this is happening that he’s giddy with it.

“Suga,” Daichi says, with gentle exasperation. And then “ _Suga,”_ again, with a laugh this time, when Suga fails to stop smiling and Daichi winds up kissing his teeth.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry, just…” Suga tries to get himself under control.

Daichi raises his eyebrows at him when he presses his lips together hard. “You okay now?” he asks. “I can’t kiss you like that either, you know.”

Suga beams at him again. There’s no helping it. “Did you know you make me really happy?”

“Suga…” Daichi looks down, his cheeks flushing and his lips forming the sweetest smile. Suga is the luckiest man in the universe.

“I’m so glad you’re here.”

“Me too,” Daichi says, meeting his eyes again. His hand tightens in Suga’s shirt as he shifts just a little closer. “I’m _really_ glad you’re not dating Kuroo.”

Suga laughs and moves a little closer, too, slipping his foot between Daichi’s ankles. “Because he’s much too tall.”

“Mhm,” Daichi says. “And because you’re dating me. And that’s... ”

“Exactly right,” Suga says with a nod that bumps his nose against Daichi’s.

Daichi nods too, just before his eyes fall closed and he finds Suga’s lips again. Fits them together with his own, inexpertly, and perfectly all the same. He’s holding Suga close enough now that their bodies are touching. Knees overlapping, chests brushing, hips so close that Suga’s synapses are exploding just from the proximity. From the thought of all the firsts they’ll share together when they’re ready.

For now, he just wants to taste Daichi’s lips forever. He wants the little noises he makes when their kiss deepens, and the way his breath sounds when they part, when they both lick their lips and smile at each other and pull each other close again. He wants the heat of Daichi’s hand, always finding its way back to his tattoo. He wants exactly what he has, and that’s such a beautiful thing he can hardly bear it.

He kisses Daichi until their hands are resting on each other instead of gripping, until they’re both too sleepy from everything this day has been for more than occasional soft presses of lips, and then just steady breaths falling close and comforting. Daichi falls asleep first, his hand curled over Suga’s ribs. Suga tries to stay awake as long as he can, because this feels like actual magic. Sharing this perfect, tiny bed with his best friend. His boyfriend.

He thought it might feel strange, this transition from sharing bus seats to sharing goodnight kisses, but it really doesn’t. It’s not an adjustment, just another step taken together, with hands held tight now. Figuratively, at least.

Daichi’s heartbeat has become steady and slow against him, and Suga kisses him once more, right there on his chest. Then he slips his hand into Daichi’s, because he really loves doing this literally, and because he _can,_ and he doesn’t try to stay awake anymore. The sooner he falls asleep, the sooner he’ll wake up and get to share good morning kisses with Daichi, too.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'm [ellessey-writes](http://ellessey-writes.tumblr.com/) on Tumblr, and [karasuno123](https://twitter.com/karasuno123) on Twitter! You can find many more of my DaiSuga works on AO3 [here](https://archiveofourown.org/works?utf8=%E2%9C%93&commit=Sort+and+Filter&work_search%5Bsort_column%5D=revised_at&work_search%5Brelationship_ids%5D%5B%5D=836528&work_search%5Bother_tag_names%5D=&work_search%5Bquery%5D=&work_search%5Blanguage_id%5D=&work_search%5Bcomplete%5D=0&user_id=Ellessey).
> 
> Thanks also to the most beautiful group chat (Ess, RC, Val) for reading over this :D


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